


Words, words, words

by Winterstar



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 19:51:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1097944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterstar/pseuds/Winterstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Words are powerful, words change things. Tony wonders if he’s ready to say the words that need to be said.<br/><i>He is not unmade, he is not undone, but he is made and stronger and the words do change everything. They change everything because the thing between them becomes something more, something bright, something promising, something precious. Words change everything.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Words, words, words

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt to my ask box on tumblr - asking for a Stony fic with Steve covering Tony's arc reactor scar and fluff.

The words inside of him tumble and fall like the lazy snow outside the large expansive windows of the penthouse bedroom. He keeps the words curled tightly, unspoken and, therefore, unrevealed. He shouldn't say them, how can he, when this thing between them has just begun – yet is just a year old in some ways. It is nascent and new and fragile and oh so very breakable. He doesn't want it to shatter - everything else in his life has broken. 

Lifting his hand he places it on his chest where the arc reactor once resided, but now does not - now a hand - Steve's hand- lies relaxed upon his chest. When he examines the bones, the structure, the muscles, he realizes how very much he wants to release the words from the prison inside of him. He fears they may die along with all the other truths in his life that he felt necessary to secure and hide away. If he keeps these words hidden does that mean that he will lose Steve?

He's lost so much, but gained so much in his life.

He has nothing to complain about - he's a billionaire, how can he complain when there are people starving, hungry, looking for shelter or succor, somewhere safe. There's so much wrong with this fucking world, he shouldn't complain about his lot in life. He has too much, but not enough at all. Yet, now, he knows he has all he could ask for lying beside him.

"Hmm?" Steve's voice rumbles through the mattress.

Tony only squeezes his hand once and tells him to go back to sleep.

"You awake?" Steve says he picks up his head and squints at Tony. He's lying on his stomach spread out after their Christmas Eve celebration. He looks sated, and happy, and slightly bruised - but in a good way.

"Go back to sleep."

Steve crawls the short way up the bed and drags Tony to him, spooning up against his back. "Tell me what it is?"

"Why is it anything?"

Steve quiets and looks out the window over his shoulder. "Snowing."

"Yeah, started an hour ago."

"I never liked the snow." He laughs a little but it has no mirth. "That's not really true, the few winters I was Captain America in the war I liked winter well enough."

"But not before?"

"Never liked it, hated it." Steve's hand cups over the scar on Tony's chest. "Always meant I would be sick and Ma would have to pay the bills and work all the harder to get me through it. It was rough."

Tony rubs circles on the hand that clenches over his heart. "You don't like snow, now, though."

Steve lays his head against Tony, and he can feel the intake of breath, the quiet flow of air, the smile upon Steve's lips. "I don't like the cold. I think I like the snow. I think I do."

"You froze in the snow; I'd think you'd have a permanent problem with it."

Lips caress the line of his neck. "Snow brought us together. How can I hate it now?"

There is no lie in what Steve states. Snow did bring them together. A year after Malibu and Tony's disastrous proclamation, the whole horrible thing which led to his eventual break up with Pepper, he'd found himself in Washington DC. The city had been covered in an unprecedented snow storm. The traffic choked up and he'd been stuck near Foggy Bottom. Thankfully, JARVIS navigated him to the closest port in the storm which happened to be Steve's new residence. He'd knocked on the door, cold and hungry and in need of a stiff drink. 

Without so much as a blink, Steve had opened the door and welcomed him. It had been Christmas Eve. They spent the night in front of the little fire Steve built in the stone fireplace in the rowhouse flat he rented. It had been everything that Tony once dreamed the Avengers Initiative might be some day - back when he had armor, back when being Iron Man meant something. Steve cooked them a dinner of stuffed roasted pork, spiced apples, wild rice, and asparagus. He'd even made a pecan pie. On record it had been the best Christmas Tony ever spent. After that, they'd fallen into each other's spheres of influence becoming friends until one day Tony breached the barrier they'd constructed and asked Steve out.

"You know what I'm asking, right?" Tony had said.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know when someone's asking me out on a date, Tony." Steve frowned.

"You don't look too enthusiastic about it, you look constipated."

"I am not-." Steve rolled his eyes and said, "I just didn't know you went in for that."

"For what? Enthusiasm or constipation? Yes to one, no to the other. I'll let you guess which one is which."

"Tony."

"Capsicle."

"I really don't like that name. It isn't very nice," Steve said.

"You're using diversionary tactics. Don't try to do that with the King of Diversion."

Steve huffed and looked around before finally settling on Tony. "Okay, I just don't know how to do this in today's world. I know that from my day we didn't just date guys, it wasn't right. Okay, okay, wasn’t acceptable. Now it is - it's all just a little confusing to me."

Tony had stepped into Steve's space. Their lips just inches apart. "Let me teach you, I can be a good teacher. Would you do that, would you let me in? Are you interested in me that way?"

And so it had all began with a snow storm and the cold weather.

"So what's keeping you up?" Steve says into Tony's hair, a year later. "The snow?"

"The snow, you, me," Tony says and he feels Steve tense ever so slightly as if he's waiting for a blow.

He pats the protective hand that always sits over his heart, his lungs, his scars when they snuggle in bed. "Ssh, babe, ssh."

"What is it?"

"Words, words, words, words," Tony says in a garble of sounds.

"Not sure I'm following you."

Tony moves around to face Steve but stays within the compass of his arms. "There are these words. I need to say them, but I-."

"You want to break up with me."

"God, no, why would I do that, and do you think I'm that cold hearted to do it on Christmas day?"

Steve sighs with a large release of air. "Sorry, I just worry."

Tony fingers the line of Steve's cheek to his jaw. "The words that are jumbled up in my mouth, that can't come out because I'm too much of an insecure idiot - it's something I've been wanting to say for months, Christ, maybe even a year since we were in your apartment in DC."

"You really like my pecan pie," Steve says and smiles.

"You are a bit of a smart ass, you know that, don't you?"

Steve laughs, but it is quiet and comforting.

"I want to say, I love you."

It is the first time he's stated it out loud, it is the first time he's taken this step with Steve. He knows it fundamentally changes everything about their world, their expectations, and their future. The next moment will make or break him.

"I love you, too," Steve replies with a tender kiss.

He is not unmade, he is not undone, but he is made and stronger and the words do change everything. They change everything because the thing between them becomes something more, something bright, something promising, something precious. Words change everything. 

His world changes on a dark, but glistening night in the late days of December and it isn't a villain or a robot or a suit that does it. It is words, words, words.

**Author's Note:**

> Please check me out on [Tumblr](http://winterstar95.tumblr.com).
> 
> Thank you and Happy Holidays!


End file.
